We set out to make it as easy as possible for everyone to upgrade to Windows 8. Starting at general availability, if your PC is running Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 you will qualify to download an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for just $39.99 in 131 markets. And if you want, you can add Windows Media Center for free through the “add features” option within Windows 8 Pro after your upgrade.

When you use Windows.com to purchase an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro, the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant makes upgrading simple by walking you through the upgrade process step-by-step from purchase to download and then of course installation.

Touting HTML5 and Javascript as the future: there is a place for this combo, it has been defined to be useful on the web driven by browsers. Does it belong on the UI Desktop? Not no, but HELL no. I am convinced this is going to cause a huge nightmare of support calls not to mention exploits.

us said: cptbarkey189 said: and that confirms to what i already suspected, that Windows 8 is essentially Windows Millennium is to Windows98.

edit: in short, Windows 8 is garbage.

i was saying the same thing in another thread but nobody liked that comment. But I used the XP vs. Vista instead of ME vs. 98. Which is pretty much the same thing.

you wont hear it much at all while microsoft pays every starving author out there to promote it.

alfalfa19

Member

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 4:26p

I think windows 7 is very very good. My computers never crash, even when I leave them running for weeks. With enough RAM, the machines are very snappy, have good security, and look nice ( I know that is very important to some people). On the other hand, my trial download of Win 8 was not a pleasant OS at all. In fairness, I did not spend more than a few hours with it, and I would not do so, unless I was getting paid to use it. Maybe sometime in the distant future, I would want to try it again, but I see no reason whatsoever to "upgrade" to Win 8 at this point. I still have a very sour taste in my mouth from the abomination known as Windows Vista.

ez1

Addicted Member

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 4:36p

Without the "start" button, Windows 8 does not make sense for a desktop. As far as I can tell, it's really Windows 7 with some features optimized for a laptop or pad with a touch screen. Pass for desktops. A maybe for the right laptop or pad.

arribasn

Senior Member - 5K

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 4:41p

Can you upgrade from windows7 starter edition?

wpc

Senior Member - 2K

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 4:43p

arribasn said: Can you upgrade from windows7 starter edition?you should be able to since you can upgrade from XP

milkandcookies

Senior Member - 1K

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 4:50p

alfalfa19 said: I think windows 7 is very very good. My computers never crash, even when I leave them running for weeks. With enough RAM, the machines are very snappy, have good security, and look nice ( I know that is very important to some people). On the other hand, my trial download of Win 8 was not a pleasant OS at all. In fairness, I did not spend more than a few hours with it, and I would not do so, unless I was getting paid to use it. Maybe sometime in the distant future, I would want to try it again, but I see no reason whatsoever to "upgrade" to Win 8 at this point. I still have a very sour taste in my mouth from the abomination known as Windows Vista.

Yeah, why upgrade? 7 is great.

clearanceman

Senior Member - 10K

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 5:04p

Tempting to go from XP to windows 8. However, is it ready for prime time? MS beta is horrible and even their first releases are usually bad. I remember when Vista came out, it was horrendous. Now, it's decent, I stuck with it long enough for them to work the bugs out.

clearanceman

Senior Member - 10K

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 5:10p

milkandcookies said: alfalfa19 said: I think windows 7 is very very good. My computers never crash, even when I leave them running for weeks. With enough RAM, the machines are very snappy, have good security, and look nice ( I know that is very important to some people). On the other hand, my trial download of Win 8 was not a pleasant OS at all. In fairness, I did not spend more than a few hours with it, and I would not do so, unless I was getting paid to use it. Maybe sometime in the distant future, I would want to try it again, but I see no reason whatsoever to "upgrade" to Win 8 at this point. I still have a very sour taste in my mouth from the abomination known as Windows Vista.

Yeah, why upgrade? 7 is great.

Because someone has to pay for Microsoft's giveaways in other countries and Bill's billions.

SSi

Ancient Member

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 5:46p

ez said: Without the "start" button, Windows 8 does not make sense for a desktop. As far as I can tell, it's really Windows 7 with some features optimized for a laptop or pad with a touch screen. Pass for desktops. A maybe for the right laptop or pad.

Think of it as a desktop + dashboard. You could still get the classic "start button" interface.

FutureDilemma

Senior Member - 1K

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 5:51p

Thank you Apple and Google!

kimmo

Member

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 6:05p

I use the beta version of 8 just to try it out and its more for tablets and phones than for a laptop or desktop. If you want the start button than it defeat the purpose of Win 8. When I was testing it out on my netbook I hated the thing. Unless you want your computer to be a huge tablet or phone I don't think you want to get this Win 7 is great so no point of upgrading that at the moment even if you use XP it is still better than Win 8.

zettler

Senior Member - 1K

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 6:18p

My thoughts are two-fold.

For those of us who have "Vista" on a device then this becomes a better deal than what is currently available for Windows 7.

And, then based upon my buying copies of Windows XP years ago, that decision has paid off many fold over time. In that case, I look at them as an investment for you know the deals wont be that great later on...

Schmungy

Senior Member

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 6:28p

Suddenly these guys are getting a bit more nimble and innovative in their products and proliferation. They deserve some credit.

Meanwhile, Cupertino is starting to slow down a bit. At some point the "new <xyz> just sells itself" mentality will slow them down further.

I'm not sure a PC preloaded with Vista or XP is robust enough to run Win 8 though

coolbreeze

Senior Member - 4K

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 6:30p

Why is this confusing to me? Does this mean that everyone can upgrade to Win8 for $39.99 at any time? Or is this some sort of limited promotion?

Nevermind. Valid through Jan 31 2013.

SimMike

Senior Member - 2K

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 6:37p

cptbarkey189 said: and that confirms to what i already suspected, that Windows 8 is essentially Windows Millennium is to Windows98.

edit: in short, Windows 8 is garbage. Windows 98 was actually a really good upgrade. Windows Millennium (ME), on the other hand, was junk.

Klingsor

Handsome Member

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 6:42p

Like everyone else here is saying. I've been using Win 8 beta for a few months now. It doesn't do anything special except make you computer feel slightly less usable, and slightly more like a phone or tablet. Don't know why the 2nd poster got so much red. It's true, every second or 3rd version of Windows is a dud, and Win 8 is that dud. Vista totally sucked, and Win 7 is great. Don't bother with the upgrade unless you've got one of those duds. i.e. Vista, ME or 98. And I know XP is decent, but it is getting a bit long in the tooth now, and it would make sense to modernize from XP.

FranksandBeans

Happy Member

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 6:43p

MS could fix this entire problem they have by just changing the name to Windows Touch or something like that.

A tablet/touchscreen PC should not have the same OS/UI as a mouse and keyboard desktop just yet. They may well eventually end up with something that can be properly tailored to everything, but it seems so damn foolish to me for them to call this windows 8. Call it Windows Touch. Let it mature on tablets and figure out the kinks of tablets vs. normal systems. Then come out with some hybrid do it all system and call THAT windows 8.

Problem solved.

Dear MS, I own your stock. Please feel free to contact me for consulting payment if you appreciate the above simple and massive fix.

cptbarkey189

Dismembered Member

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 6:52p

Klingsor said: Like everyone else here is saying. I've been using Win 8 beta for a few months now. It doesn't do anything special except make you computer feel slightly less usable, and slightly more like a phone or tablet. Don't know why the 2nd poster got so much red. It's true, every second or 3rd version of Windows is a dud, and Win 8 is that dud. Vista totally sucked, and Win 7 is great. Don't bother with the upgrade unless you've got one of those duds. i.e. Vista, ME or 98. And I know XP is decent, but it is getting a bit long in the tooth now, and it would make sense to modernize from XP.

mainly its because i go out of my way to make hard trollish statements that most of FW doesnt give a crap about. they (like myself) are cheapskates and probably already ordered their copy of Windows 8, and cant take buyers remorse.

rootbear

Cranky Member

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 7:05p

What is so wrong with 7 that 8 is even needed - desktop specific? Though for some reason our IT folks are pretty excited over Win Server 2012.

SimMike said: cptbarkey189 said: and that confirms to what i already suspected, that Windows 8 is essentially Windows Millennium is to Windows98.

edit: in short, Windows 8 is garbage. Windows 98 was actually a really good upgrade. Windows Millennium (ME), on the other hand, was junk.

Windows ME was known as 'Mistake-Edition'...

burgerwars

just a salad for me

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 7:36p

ez said: Without the "start" button, Windows 8 does not make sense for a desktop. As far as I can tell, it's really Windows 7 with some features optimized for a laptop or pad with a touch screen. Pass for desktops. A maybe for the right laptop or pad.

Agree. I installed the beta a while ago using Virtual Box on an iMac just to try it. The whole concept is annoying. I got tired of using it. I'll keep the Windows 7 I already have on my laptop. Next PC or laptop I buy will have Windows 8 because I can't fight the upgrade curve, but I won't bother upgrading it on my current PCs. Not worth it. I don't have the patience plus I'll probably end up screwing things to the point where I have to reformat.

gaijin4life

Senior Member

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 7:40p

clearanceman said: Tempting to go from XP to windows 8. However, is it ready for prime time? MS beta is horrible and even their first releases are usually bad. I remember when Vista came out, it was horrendous. Now, it's decent, I stuck with it long enough for them to work the bugs out.

The only reason they're giving you the "free upgrade" to Windows Media Center add-on is that Windows 8 has NO support for DVDs. They took it OUT. You have to buy an add on (MS or others) to play a DVD on Win 8. The single biggest retarded move. This is NOT a desktop OS, and is definitely a Win ME redux.

My FAVORITE Win 8 video showing a real user LOST in it because of the crap kludge of a UI:

There will be a LOT of this after release. It's a terrible version of Windows.

robertw477

Senior Member - 2K

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 7:48p

Just for kicks I tested Windows 8 on my business PC for the past two weeks. Just updated to the latest release as I had the original Win8 preview. In a way it seems a little clunky going from Metro to the standard desktop without the start menu. Frankly I think they they made a mistake here. The OS itself seems reliable. Maybe if I can spend a few days in Metro only I might feel a little different. It seems there are two sides to the OS. If that was the case why didn't they do like a spaces thing. One side you have the old start menu and such, one side metro, one side could be used for virtualzation maybe? And some custom workspaces? Maybe we have evolved to a point with windows 7, where they are all out of ideas. As an earlier poster said Win 7 is stable and runs fine. In fact they almost backed themselves into a corner so hot on the idea on a tablet type os for desktops, laptops and tablets. What could Windows 9 bring? What was the big problem leaving the start menu on the desktop side? I think they were trying to be so cool and hip.

robertw477

Senior Member - 2K

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 7:51p

zettler said: cptbarkey189 said: and that confirms to what i already suspected, that Windows 8 is essentially Windows Millennium is to Windows98.

edit: in short, Windows 8 is garbage.

Hopefully a better platform....I

And this is a fairly nice deal for those trying to get out of Vista or finally upgrade fro. XP!

Pretty funny comment about the Earl of Scheib. I had them paint one of my old clunkers in my college days. The paint flaked off but the price was right.

robertw477

Senior Member - 2K

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 7:54p

zettler said: From the MS website:

We set out to make it as easy as possible for everyone to upgrade to Windows 8. Starting at general availability, if your PC is running Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 you will qualify to download an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for just $39.99 in 131 markets. And if you want, you can add Windows Media Center for free through the “add features” option within Windows 8 Pro after your upgrade.

When you use Windows.com to purchase an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro, the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant makes upgrading simple by walking you through the upgrade process step-by-step from purchase to download and then of course installation.

I think having an upgrade at this low a price shows that in a way they are copying the Apple model for a low cost upgrade. They know these days consumers wont pay 99.00 or anything near that even if they have interest in it. I am sure the tech writers would be shocked at the pricing model. Most people will get Win8 on new machines I guess. If there is a backlash, then what? I know Microsoft wants their partners to go with Win8.

ArmchairQB

Ancient Member

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 8:18p

rootbear said: What is so wrong with 7 that 8 is even needed - desktop specific? Though for some reason our IT folks are pretty excited over Win Server 2012.

No way.... plenty of good server stuff with hyper-v and more.. forcing the metro UI on server admins... another story

clearanceman

Senior Member - 10K

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 8:29p

Schmungy said: Suddenly these guys are getting a bit more nimble and innovative in their products and proliferation. They deserve some credit.

Meanwhile, Cupertino is starting to slow down a bit. At some point the "new <xyz> just sells itself" mentality will slow them down further.

I'm not sure a PC preloaded with Vista or XP is robust enough to run Win 8 though

Is it that big a pig?

tjiangnet

Member

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 8:30p

Windows 8 is for touch panel and better integration. If you haven't used touch panel try to buy a new device with touch panel, and then install Windows 8. Otherwise keep using windows 7 and save your time.

clearanceman

Senior Member - 10K

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 8:30p

SimMike said: cptbarkey189 said: and that confirms to what i already suspected, that Windows 8 is essentially Windows Millennium is to Windows98.

edit: in short, Windows 8 is garbage. Windows 98 was actually a really good upgrade. Windows Millennium (ME), on the other hand, was junk.

Windows 98 was a pile of poo. XP was based on windows NT/2000 and was much better. ME was based on 98 and that whole Kernel was so bad they abandoned it after ME.

labboypro

Ancient Member

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 8:31p

alfalfa19 said: I think windows 7 is very very good. My computers never crash, even when I leave them running for weeks.

I have 2 machines with uptimes of over 6 months, and the only reason they were booted back then was to apply a necessary 3rd party application patch. W7 is VERY reliable, so if W8 is even "as good as" W7, I have no qualms about upgrading some of my desktops. And for $40, that's a smokin' deal, IMO. Kudos to MS for finally appearing to treat the customer right.

clearanceman

Senior Member - 10K

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 8:32p

Klingsor said: Like everyone else here is saying. I've been using Win 8 beta for a few months now. It doesn't do anything special except make you computer feel slightly less usable, and slightly more like a phone or tablet. Don't know why the 2nd poster got so much red. It's true, every second or 3rd version of Windows is a dud, and Win 8 is that dud. Vista totally sucked, and Win 7 is great. Don't bother with the upgrade unless you've got one of those duds. i.e. Vista, ME or 98. And I know XP is decent, but it is getting a bit long in the tooth now, and it would make sense to modernize from XP.

Vista doesn't suck anymore. It did when it came out, but point taken. Some are better than others right from day one.

DSJ

Handsome Member

posted: Jul. 2, 2012 @ 8:34p

Can I get Win7 Pro for 19USD?

Skipping 76 Messages...

cpabster

Nerdy Member

posted: Nov. 1, 2012 @ 9:53a

Maybe I'm in the minority...but I'm loving Windows 8, on a desktop machine. I'm still not convinced the new Metro interface is proper for a desktop but it IS growing on me. I run in standard desktop mode probably 90% of the time. People fail to realize you can easily avoid the "new" Metro stuff if you wish. And it still runs faster and smoother than even Windows 7 (which was great). I'm very happy with the performance and some of the new features and functionality. It's everything Windows 7 was with some nice new touches.

I highly recommend a program called Start8 (yes it cost $4.95) you can configure everything, put the Start menu back, etc. I know there are some free alternatives but for $5 I was happy to do it.

Change is always a sticky thing, we as humans are naturally resistant to it. Windows 8 looks and runs great, quit living in the past. At $40 this is a no-brainer. I didn't worry one bit about DVD functionality being removed as I use VLC for all my video needs anyway. There is a workaround to get Media Center and DVD functionality back "FREE" if you search around a bit. I have no use for either but YMMV.

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